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2018 CPD Gold Submissions

Kerry Chilvers, Brands Director at Direct Line and Chair of Judges for CPD Gold delivered her speech at the 2019 IPA Members' Lunch.

2018 CPD Gold Submissions

It has been a real privilege for me to be this year’s Chair on the CPD Gold Accreditation.

I’ve really enjoyed the role and learnt a huge amount in the process. I was truly staggered by the level of hard work and commitment shown by you all in your submissions. It is clear to see that many of you have spent considerable time with the IPA, ensuring you really do have Gold standard CPD programmes in place for your people. And your commitment was absolutely matched by the excitement and passion shown by both the judging panel, and your IPA team. They all have a very deep belief in the power of CPD to drive performance, of both individuals and organisations. There was a very rigorous review of all your submissions, with a strong focus on effectiveness, and great discussion. I’d like to thank the judging panel for their diligence, and for guiding me through the process.

As I’ve reflected on your submissions over the past few weeks, one thing has struck me. Through the entries I saw unparalleled levels of creativity, investment, hard work and care that you undertake each and every day to make sure your people are well trained, and highly qualified for their roles. As a client, hugely reassuring to see! But on a more serious note, it is a real testament to the professional nature of our industry. It takes true skill and expertise to create compelling and effective advertising communications – whether that’s for a much-loved household brand, or a small local business. And as a body of agencies, you are absolutely ensuring you develop true advertising professionals, who are not only technically trained, but engaged, inspired, well, and able to work to their full potential.

This has perhaps never been more critical. As I am sure you all aware, the trust agenda in advertising is becoming increasingly important, with the most recent Edelman trust barometer showed advertising as the least trusted industry, behind banking, energy and telecoms. Whilst there are many reasons for this, building the credibility of our industry will absolutely rely on you each having talented, determined and passionate teams, armed with all the knowledge they need to be able to do their jobs brilliantly, and help us deal with the trust challenge.

This is a familiar journey for me. Over the past six years, we’ve sought to make the Direct Line Group marketing team and function more influential in our organisation, so we could ensure DLG was truly customer focused, and a vibrant growing business. To do that we needed to build credibility, and evidence the value Marketing can bring to our business. And whilst that relied on many things - including working with brilliant agency partners - we knew we couldn’t achieve our ambition without the best possible people, who are able to be their best self at work – engaged and owning their development and careers, whatever that looks like for them. We’ve had much success over the past few years, and are now at the forefront of our organisation, but this has been utterly underpinned by our commitment to CPD. And it truly is a commitment, to build CPD into the culture. I know that there are many hard yards. It takes focus and determination to prioritise, and fund, when there is so much ‘work’ to do. And for that I applaud the commitment you have made. You’re not just making your businesses more successful, you are driving the professionalism of our industry.

Receiving recognition in the industry has also been hugely important in our journey to build credibility – including our own IPA wins. Which leads me nicely on to today’s IPA winners. Your CPD awards will undoubtedly play a big role in helping you build credibility with your clients, and your people.

Before we get started, I’d like to say a special thank you to the IPA CPD team, who worked very hard, all year round, to support you and make IPA CPD accreditation the tremendous achievement that it is. Huge thank you to Sarah and to Gwyn,

First, I’m delighted to recognise the agencies with CPD Platinum accreditation, having received CPD Gold for four years or more.

There will be a special celebration for you all after lunch. But in the meantime, could those agencies please get to their feet and let us congratulate them.

Kerry Chilvers was Chair of Judges for this year's CPD Gold Accreditation.

The IPA’s CPD programme offers inspirational career development and training through engaging and effective courses and award-winning qualifications, ensuring agency practitioners; skills match their client’s needs. For more information visit the IPA’s CPD hub.